The present invention generally relates to computer systems, and more particularly to application programs and the downloading of data from a remote server.
Present financial programs, i.e., personal finance managers such as Microsoft Corporation""s Money and Intuit""s Quicken programs, permit the download of financial transaction history (or statement data) from Internet banking web sites. The transaction history is made available to a user via a secure statement detail page on a financial institution""s secure web site. For example, such programs may host an in-situ browser that permits viewing and synchronizing of the financial institution information from within the program. To this end, when the user requests transaction data from a financial institution, the application hosts a browser to render a page provided by the financial institution""s server that includes the transaction data.
To synchronize with a personal finance manager""s existing financial data for that user, a download button is provided on the statement detail web page, the clicking of which downloads transaction history detail from the web site for reconciliation. One problem with this mechanism is that users often cannot easily find the download button, for example when the user has so many transactions that the button is scrolled off the visible portion of the rendered page.
The present invention is directed to a method and system wherein a recognition mechanism determines whether particular content (e.g., an identifier) is present in a document downloaded for rendering by a hosted browser. If the particular content is present, the application hosting the browser modifies its own functionality (e.g., behavior) in some manner.
In one embodiment, a hosted browser control scans a page to search for an identifier corresponding to a download button. If present, the host application is notified, and modifies its functionality by providing a notification/activation mechanism in the form of an alternate download button for display. The alternate download button does not scroll off the screen as the page is scrolled. Alternative ways in which an application may alter its operation when an identifier is present include, for example, changing the characteristics such as the color of the application window and so forth. Logical combinations of multiple identifiers may also be used to determine changed functionality, e.g., do something else if both identifier xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d and identifier xe2x80x9cbxe2x80x9d are present in a page.
The present invention also suppresses a dialog box (e.g., the open/save dialog box) when a request for content is made by a hosted browser. In the example described above, a request for download of financial information suppresses the open/save dialog box, and automatically opens the downloaded document.
Other advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which: